transcendental

The definition of transcendental is supernatural or beyond the human experience.

An example of something transcendental is the ability to communicate with the dead.

transcendental

transcendent (sense )

supernatural

of or having to do with transcendentalism

in Kantian philosophy, based on those elements of experience which derive not from sense data but from the inherent organizing functions of the mind, and which are the necessary conditions of human knowledge; transcending sense experience but not knowledge

Math.

not capable of being a root of any algebraic equation with rational coefficients

of, pertaining to, or being a function, as a logarithm, trigonometric function, exponential, etc., that is not expressible algebraically in terms of the variables and constants

Origin of transcendental

Medieval Latin transcendentalis

transcendental

adjective

Philosophy

a. Concerned with the a priori or intuitive basis of knowledge as independent of experience.

b. Asserting a fundamental irrationality or supernatural element in experience.

Surpassing all others; superior.

Beyond common thought or experience; mystical or supernatural.

Mathematics Of or relating to a real or complex number that is not the root of any polynomial that has positive degree and rational coefficients.

Sentence Examples

Transcendental method is indeed not invulnerable.

Under the general heading "Fundamental Notions" occur the subheadings "Foundations of Arithmetic," with the topics rational, irrational and transcendental numbers, and aggregates; "Universal Algebra," with the topics complex numbers, quaternions, ausdehnungslehre, vector analysis, matrices, and algebra of logic; and "Theory of Groups," with the topics finite and continuous groups.

But to the man of ordinary understanding, unused to the rarefied atmosphere of abstract thought, this conception of a transcendental, impersonal Spirit and the unreality of the phenomenal world can have no meaning: what he requires is a deity that stands in intimate relation to things material and to all that affects man's life.

These limit the admissible values of a-, which are in general determined by a transcendental equation corresponding to the determinantal equation (6).

The exact fulfilment of this condition requires the solution of a transcendental equation; but it may be fulfilled with accuracy sufficient for practical purposes by using, instead of (32 B) the following approximate equation: L nearly = 2C +ir(ri +ri) + (Ti rz)2/c. (~l3)